Wednesday morning There was a new oil spill at the oil terminal located in Puerto Rosales, White Bay. After the incident, the government of Buenos Aires decided to suspend loading and unloading operations at the Oiltanking oil port. For now, There is no news from the inspection of the Ministry of Energywhich keeps the Vaca Muerta industry alert.
This oil port allows the exit of crude oil from Vaca Muerta for export through its two monobuoys, which are maritime facilities intended for the loading and unloading of oil tankers. According to sources consulted by Energía On, if the reactivation of the terminal is extended for another week, they could have to close wells to reduce Vaca Muerta production before the shrinking of destinations.
At the same time, if start-up is delayed, There could be problems with the supply of heavy crude oil to refineries, which would make fuel production difficult. It happens that crude oil from the San Jorge Gulf Basin enters the Puerto Rosales terminal through maritime transport, to be transferred to the refineries, and once treated, distributed to the country.
At the moment, the firm indicated that it has stock in tanks: “the partial closure does not include pumping operations of the available crude oil stock to the refineries so their normal supply is assured.
However, the start-up is against the clock both for operations in Vaca Muerta and for fuel supply. The crude oil import and export system depends on the operation of the terminal’s two monobuoys, Punta Ancla and Punta Cigüeña that are suspended today for repairs.
Punta Ancla stopped being in operation after the spill on December 26. According to the company, the failure occurred on one of the connection flanges at the end of the underwater hose, which led to the oil leak. They indicated that the cause could be an overload on the mooring line from the ship.
As for Punta Cigüeña, the monobuoy closed yesterday, repair work would be carried out on site. In this case, the company explained that the failure occurred in a pressure measuring element, which would have generated the spill. In this monobuoy, vessels of up to 106,000 gross tons can be operated at maximum summer draft.
Yesterday afternoon they would carry out the repair of the breakdown that “is estimated to require about 4 hours of work of the staff and will be in conjunction with GIE GROUP, which will certify its execution. Once this task has been completed, a status inspection and validation of the system as a whole will be carried out by the RINA Classification Society,” they said in a statement.
Once the guarantees are obtained, They are awaiting inspection by the Ministry of Energy. The ministry will inspect the status of the monobuoy and determine its implementation. With its ruling, the Province of Buenos Aires, through the Ministry of the Environment, will enable its implementation. In the face of uncertainty, Industry sources fear that the reactivation will extend until next week.
Oil spill in Bahía Blanca: what the Buenos Aires government said
From the Ministry of Environment they assured that “they are carrying out all actions so that the event has the least possible impact in our natural common goods and in the lives of the people of Buenos Aires. They maintain communication with the mayor of Bahía Blanca, Federico Susbielles; the mayor of Coronel Rosales, Rodrigo Aristimuño; Port authorities and social actors in the area.
The Ministry of Environment already had suspended the operation of the monobuoy that caused the spill on December 26 “which affected part of the Bahía Blanca, Bahía Falsa and Bahía Verde Reserve,” they indicated. After this event, Oiltanking was ordered to present the Contingency Plan and the Remediation Plan urgently and sanctions were applied, such as «the maximum fine that the agency can issue«.
The Water Authority and the ministry were present at the terminal following the containment of the spill yesterday. The latter determined “preventively suspend Oiltanking operations” and it was urgently requested that the National Energy Secretariat, the agency that authorizes the company’s activity, revised the operation«they expressed in a statement.